Pro Tour-Chicago 1999Round 11 Feature Match

Christian Lührs vs. Alan Comer (9-1)

Round 10 saw Christian Lührs of Germany and Alan Comer of the US match up at 9-1, looking for the top slot going in to the second half of day two. Lührs is playing a four-color countersliver deck, while Comer is playing the "Suicide Brown" Tinker deck.

Both players mulliganed once to begin the game, and Comer started with a turn 1 Voltaic Key, then a turn 2 Cursed Scroll. Since his slivers are at best 2/2, Lührs thought hard before pitching a Winged Sliver to Force of Will the Scroll. On his turn, he dropped a second land and the Crystalline Sliver he'd just drawn, remarking "If I had known this, I wouldn't have countered." Comer thanked him for doing so, then went on to play a Thran Dynamo and then a Phyrexian Colossus over the next two turns. "Damn, he's big," was Lührs' response.

In the meanwhile, though, Lührs had found a Muscle, then a Hibernation Sliver allowing him to triple-block and kill the Colossus when Comer ttacked with it, paying six life to return all three to hand. Lührs then went on to play out all three and a winged over the next two turns and beat Comer down as all he could play was more mana artifacts and watch himself get ripped apart by Slivery goodness.

1-0 Lührs

Comer mulliganed this game, and played first with a City of Traitors, while Lührs just dropped an Underground Sea. Comer then used his second turn for a Grim Monolith, Voltaic Key, and Phyrexian Processor for ten life, which Lührs allowed, then untapped, played land, and Disenchanted. Comer then played a slightly more cautious 5 point Processor.

Lührs then went to work with an Acidic Sliver, but Comer dropped his sideboarded Back to Basics to leave Lührs with only 2 land untapped. Lührs then played a Winged Sliver, tapping out and threatening 3 points of flying damage with Comer at 3. Comer managed to slide out of the way of immediate doom with a Crumbling Sanctuary, then began making 5/5 beast tokens and attacking Lührs' library. Lührs, playing no basic lands at all, could only play a City of Bras over the next five turns, as the 5/5 phyrexian horde threatened to deck him, finding two Flood Plains in the process and making the understatement of the day, "That's a bad land," with the Back to Basics out. With two turns on the clock from the horde of 5/5 beasts however, Lührs finally topdecked an Undiscovered Paradise and used his last Disenchant to kill the Sanctuary, flying in with his slivers for the last 3.